C-SPAN Campaign Bus visits local schools

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

On the ever-expanding cable dial that is home to multitudes of talk shows, news analyses and five-second sound bites, there is C-SPAN, where at most hours of the day anyone interested in watching a presidential campaign debate from start to finish may do so.
And during an election year, when Americans are gearing up to check a box on the ballot, C-SPAN could provide the unfiltered access many people are thirsty for.
So since November, 2007, two massive C-SPAN Campaign 2008 Buses have crisscrossed the country, stopping at various presidential campaign events and school campuses to spread the word about the channel. And yesterday, one of the buses was at Santa Barbara High School.
Throughout the morning, groups of 15 students took a tour of the bus, which is stocked with cameras and production equipment, and were told a little about C-SPAN by Matt McGuire, affiliate relations manager for the cable channel.
“How many of you like to watch sports?” McGuire asked. “We show the whole game as it were, not just the highlights.”
The rawness of C-SPAN is one thing that Travis Turpin, a 17-year-old junior, said he prefers over other news channels.
“It’s not as cut up and processed as the other [channels],” Turpin said. “I watch that a lot more than any other… I can’t stand the bullsh*t they put on the news.”
With the expanding availability of the internet and growing number of television channels, many of which claim to cater to news, Turpin said it’s still not easy to access the information he needs to make important and informed decisions.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said.
Though Turpin won’t be old enough to vote in this November’s election (he turns 18 in December), he knows who he would choose if he could.
“I want some new blood, some young blood,” Turpin said. “I’d pick [Sen. Barack] Obama.”
Rodee Schneider, a marketing representative for C-SPAN, who has been riding the bus across the country for months, said he realizes many people do not and will not watch eight hours of a Senate floor debate.
But he said the point of the campaign bus is to let students, many of whom will be voting for the first time, know that there is a resource that provides footage from campaign events and debates that is not chopped up and analyzed. Schneider said it’s up to the viewer to draw conclusions based on what they see on the channel.
“We’re a compliment to other news organizations,” Schneider said. “We’d like to be used as one of many tools to help make up their minds… How you perceive something that’s what really matters.”
The channel’s lineup yesterday included programs called, “Situation in Afghanistan,” “Schwarzenegger Endorsement of McCain,” “Romney Campaign Event,” “Carbon Capture Policy” and “Obama Campaign Event.”
On the bus, McGuire told the students that many people believe C-SPAN is somehow mandated by the government and therefore regulated, but he said the non-profit is funded by private cable systems throughout the country that choose to carry the channel as a public service. It is not mandatory.
In Santa Barbara’s case, C-SPAN is aired by COX Communications.
Jennifer Muench, community relations manager for COX, said bringing the campaign bus to Santa Barbara is a good opportunity to help young people learn about the mission of C-SPAN.
She said the bus visited Santa Barbara Junior High and UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday.
“It’s a great educational opportunity for students to learn about the election and the electoral process,” Muench said.